Mutagenicity of quercetin and kaempferol on cultured mammalian cells.

Mutagenic activity of quercetin and kaempferol on V79 Chinese hamster cells was investigated. Quercetin was proved to have mutagenicity not only by metabolic activation system using rat liver microsomes, but also by direct application method. Kaempferol was mutagenic by metabolic activation system, but its activity by direct method seemed very low. These data suggest that the tested flavonoids seem to be metabolized for exerting their mutagenic activity and V79 cells themselves have an enzymic activation system which metabolizes at a very slow rate but in a cumulative way.